Legacies
by Random guy16
Summary: The Master Chief and the Arbiter fought together in the final stages of the Human/Covenant War. Now their Legacies will do the same as they fight the enemies of the Orion Species Coalition.
1. Prologue

**AN: Hey all guess what! I had another idea. I hope you all like this chapter.  
**

**Legacies**

_January 2553 – Human/Covenant War declared over. Humanity Begins taking stock of their losses during the war. Separatists return to their own space to deal with the loyalist threat._

_August 2557 – Final records of the losses during the war are accounted for. The human population is still dropped by more than ten-billion but the losses are far less than predicted. Due to the Covenant skipping over many of the outer colonies in their rush to destroy Reach and Earth, many military assets that had been cut off from the entirety of the UNSC are fully operational. Rebuilding of ODP's is made number-one priority._

_June 2562 – Covenant Separatists slowly lose ground to the Loyalists, but at great cost for the Loyalists. UNSC leaders talk among themselves about the possibility of lending aid to the Separatists. Despite public disapproval, Fleet Admiral Lord Terrance Hood offers assistance to the beleaguered aliens. Thel Vadam, more commonly known as the Arbiter, accepts the aid._

_July 2562 – UNSC soldiers join Separatist crews and head to the front lines. It should be noted that Earth and her colonies are once again guarded by an array of Heavy MAC defense platforms._

_December 2569 – The newly built UNSC First fleet is lead into battle by Lord Terrance Hood. The surprise at the appearance of the Human fleet allows the UNSC and Separatist to steamroll the Loyalists for several months. It should be noted that thanks to the Human-Covenant War and the continued fighting against the loyalists, UNSC and Separatists soldiers form a kind of comradery between each other._

_February 2574 – Separatist fleets hunt down the last of the San 'Shyuum in the galaxy, their job made easy by the fact only a few thousand still lived after High Charity was captured by the Flood. Without leadership, the loyalists begin losing more and more territory at an exponential rate._

_July 2575 – Loyalist forces have been driven to the edge of the Galaxy. All military assets including shipyards and fleets are systematically destroyed by Separatist forces while all data pertaining to FTL travel is destroyed by UNSC cyber warfare specialists and few shipboard A.I._

_August 2575 – The continued alliance of the UNSC and Separatists is put into question. A vote is held by the major populations for whether it would continue or be disbanded. After weeks of voting, eighty percent of the Human and ninety percent of Separatist populations vote for the continuation of the Alliance. _

_September 2575 – Lord Terrance Hood hands control back to the UEG, thankful for the drop in paperwork. Trading of technologies begins between the allies. Terraforming of Reach finally begins and with the aid of the separatists the estimated time of completion is dropped to just over a year._

_December 2576 – Terraforming of Reach is completed._

_January 2590 – Thanks to the focus on ODP construction, all Human colonies now have a minimum of ten super MAC stations with the exception of Earth, which now has more than one hundred platforms. The First Fleet still remains the only major fleet in UNSC space and acts as the defense fleet for Earth, with each colony having a defense of fifteen frigates, destroyers, and cruisers._

_January 2592 – Unggoy and Sangheili society begin reconstruction due to most of their current social norms being influenced by the lies of the prophets. Thanks to medical research and translated Forerunner archives the average life expectancy of humans is now two-thousand years, fifty years less than the Sangheili average life expectancy._

_March 2632 – UNSC military strength is back to pre-war standards. After the Human/Covenant War, the UNSC continues to increase its strength so as to never have a repeat of the genocidal campaign._

_November 2646 – The Separatists and UEG begin talks of forming a unified government._

_June 2648 – The Separatists and UEG form the Orion Species Coalition, aka OSC._

_April 2651 – The aft section of the Forward Unto Dawn is discovered several hundred light years from Sanghelios. Master Chief John-117 is rescued along with a now metastable Cortana. Several months later, a human body is cloned from Doctor Halsey's DNA at the request of Cortana._

_December 2653 – Cortana's new body is completed and has her data uploaded directly into the brain. It should be noted that, if need be, she can connect a data cable directly into her spine and transfer her consciousness into any system compatible with said cable. _

_June 2654 – Marriage of John-117 and Cortana. Thel Vadam attends and gives his congratulations. Months later, Thel Vadam mates with a prominent female sword mistress so as to pass on the "Swordsman Genes"._

_March 2655 – Jessica Shepard Halsey is born. Two months later, the daughter of Thel Vadam is born and named Ryn Vadam. _

_October 2665 – An asteroid smashes into Pluto's moon, shattering it and revealing a large device that some said was reminiscent an energy sword. It is discovered that the device can launch a ship thousands of light years away to another device near instantaneously, making its purpose as a galactic highway clear. Small fleets patrol these devices as colony ships slowly colonize other worlds._

_January 2675 – Jessica Shepard Halsey, more commonly known as just Shepard and Ryn Vadam join the OSC Military._

**(December 2680)**

High above the fortress planet of Reach, a small fleet consisting of cruisers, destroyers, and frigates prepared to enter slip-space. Their mission was to patrol a newly activated Relay and protect the newly built colony of Shanxi. To two certain females it was just another boring part of the job.

A woman with cropped brown hair, bright blue eyes, and pale skin yawned as she poked at the food in front of her. "Man, there hasn't been anything to do for the past month," she complained.

The other female, decidedly less human, rolled her dark blue eyes. When she responded, her voice was deep, guttural, but still feminine, "By the forerunners, can you ever stop complaining?" To emphasize her exasperation, the sangheili threw her hands in the air.

The human woman laughed, "Not my fault I got my mom's impatience."

The shangeili sighed before bring the delicious master piece known as a bacon burger to her mandibles and tore into it with fervor. _"This, this right here is why I love human ships,"_ she thought to herself. Her eyes glazed over as she swallowed the food. A snapping noise brought her out of her dazed state. She turned to the human sitting next to her, apparently trying to hold in her laughter.

"Jeez Ryn, I'm pretty sure I haven't seen anyone love bacon as much as you," the woman said teasingly.

Ryn's mandibles formed the equivalent of a frown. "Not my fault you humans take this godly food for granted," Ryn retorted. She wouldn't have anyone question her love of bacon.

Shepard could only chuckle at her friend's obsession with the meat. They had known each other since they could remember and she still found some of Ryn's quirks strange. But then again, there were some things about her that still baffled Ryn. The sangheili would often comment how annoyingly sarcastic Shepard was even though the woman had one of the most stoic men in the galaxy as her father.

"All personnel prepare for slip-space jump in five minutes. Repeat, all personnel prepare for slip-space jump in five minutes."

Shepard quickly finished the food in front of her before picking up the helmet to her MJOLNIR VII armor and putting it on. Ryn soon followed, her SpecOps helmet in one hand and the rest of her burger in the other. They quickly left the mess hall and headed to the bridge of the ship.

**(Bridge of Valiant-class super-heavy cruiser "Bull's Horn")**

Captain Samuel Deren was a simple man. He liked to read, he enjoyed the company of his crew, and he appreciated when his coffee didn't taste like shit. So was it so much to ask that he not receive one of the most sarcastic Spartan IV's in the entire navy and a bacon obsessed sangheili for his crew. "Athena, are we ready to jump?" he asked the shipboard AI.

"Well considering it's been only three minutes since the announcement, I'd say we still have two more to go," the hologram of a woman in ancient Greek clothing and armor retorted.

Deren pinched the bridge of his nose._ "And I just know they infected Athena,"_ he thought, thinking once again of the two who brought him so many headaches. He didn't turn around when the bridge doors opened, already knowing who it was. "Morning Shepard, Vadam," he greeted.

Ryn brought a fist over up to her chest in the traditional sangheili greeting, "To you as well shipmaster."

"Morning Captain. Coffee still taste like shit I'm guessing?" Shepard asked mirthfully.

"Just get to your stations," he ordered. He looked at his chronometer before asking, "Everyone at their stations Athena?"

"Aye sir, Slip-space drives are fully charged, ready to jump on your command."

"Do it."

Giant blue disks opened up in front of the fleet. A moment later every ship had entered their respective portal and headed towards the new colony of Shanxi.

**AN: Short but hey, prologue. **


	2. Contact

**AN: All right new chapter! Thank you to all the people who reviewed, you're awesome. Now it's time for the first fight of the story!  
**

**Legacies**

**(Turian patrol near Shanxi-Theta Relay)**

Joram Quital looked at the view-screen in front of him. In it, it showed the massive structure of an activated Mass Relay. Now since he has seen so many, this wouldn't normally be a problem. The problem was the fact that this relay was supposed to be dormant and stay dormant under Citadel law to prevent an incident like the Rachni War again. Citadel law also called for the immediate imprisonment of those who activated the relay. _"Finally, something to do on this spirit forsaken patrol,"_ he thought giddily.

"Sir, there doesn't appear to be any trace of a ship in the area. Whoever activated the relay has most likely been on the other side for some time now," one of the Turian officers informed him.

He thanked the officer and looked back at the screen. He scratched one of his mandibles as he thought of what to do, inform the Hierarchy immediately or take care of the criminals first. He decided he couldn't wait any longer for some action, "Take us through. I want those criminals brought to justice."

With those impatient words, he set into motion events that would shake the known galaxy to its core.

**(Shanxi)**

Captain Samuel studied the expanse of space that the bridge viewport allowed him as his patrol fleet left slip-space. He moved his shoulder to relieve the pain that had manifested itself when he woke up this shift and found he had fallen asleep on his arm. He grimaced slightly as he thought, _"Hell of a lot better than cryo-sleep."_

He should probably be thankful that the sangheili and translated forerunner information caches had increased slip-space travel by at least ten times. Whereas before humanity could only travel one-hundred light years per week, now OSC ships could travel one-thousand light years in the same amount of time. Even with this advancement, the OSC stayed near the Orion arm since it would still take a few years to cross the galaxy. Plus there was the threat of even more hostile aliens.

He looked at the tactical display of the system, _"Good. We jumped right next to the colony's moon."_

That was another thing that had advanced with the slip-space drives. Old human drives would simply "punch" a hole into the strange dimension with brute force. Now they were able to make such precise jumps that made the covenant's drives look like barbaric devices.

He gave a silent prayer of thanks to the soldiers who died during the Great War who made the covenant pay dearly on land when the orbital forces failed. Humanity truly shouldn't have survived the war considering how outmatched they were.

He shook his head, clearing away these thoughts. He didn't need to think about that now.

"Everything alright captain?" Athena asked.

He looked away from the display, "Yes, thank you for your concern Athena."

She smiled in response.

The fleet moved towards the planet, sending a message to the current fleet that they were relieved. As the now off duty fleet slipped into their own portals for some shore leave, his fleet took position above the colony. He sighed to himself. Last year he had been hunting pirates, now he was doing guard duty for a new colony. While important, it wasn't the most… exciting assignment out there.

Now he would just need to wait a day before sending a message to Reach. From there they would send several colony ship filled to the brim with supplies for the developing colony. It had become standard protocol for the settling of new colonies. A fleet would arrive in-system and scout the surrounding space for threats before the first settlers came in. Then all replacement fleets would wait a day for before bringing in the supply ships so as to try and prevent as many civilian casualties as possible should a battle occur.

Samuel sat in the captain's chair and typed in a few commands_. "Might as well go over the reports coming in from the fleet,"_ he thought to himself.

**(Shepard's quarters)**

All ships, whether they be sangheili or human design had crew quarters. Most were Spartan in design and only the few items a crew member could bring aboard decorated the room. But just as both designs had such quarters, they also had quarters for more important personnel. These were often twice the size of regular crew quarters to allow desks and computer terminals. In terms of Spartans and high ranking sangheili, their quarters held their armor.

So it was a blessing and curse for one Jessica Shepard Halsey. As of now she was splayed out on her bed sleeping. She rolled over to get in a more comfortable position, once again not realizing how much room she had around her bed.

"Ahh," she shouted as she fell off the side. She groaned as she pushed herself off the cold ground. She stripped out of her fatigues and walked sleepily into the small shower next to her bed. After her two minute shower she put on a new pair of fatigues and combat boots. Finally she moved to the pod that held her black and red colored Mark VII armor.

She put on the Titanium Nanocomposite Bodysuit first. Next she moved on to the half-ton of armor plating. She started with the most delicate piece, the torso. Due to the mini Plasma/fusion reactor, if it wasn't handled with care it could very well blow up. Since the ship's shields were around the ship, the explosion would probably destroy much of its support structure. After that, the ship would most like collapse on itself. _"Yea, that would be bad,"_ Shepard thought dryly.

Once the torso piece was on, the rest of the armor came on with practiced ease. She finally grabbed her helmet, the red visor reflecting her image, and attached it to the rest of her suit. Once the helmet was on she began diagnostics on the armor's systems.

**(Ryn's quarters)**

Next to Shepard's room, the female sangheili was also going through her "morning" routine. After he own shower, she placed on her armor's body suit and moved to her black and red SpecOps armor.

The torso piece, the gauntlets and the leg pieces were all attached with great reverence. Finally, she placed on the helmet. The helmet, designed to be psychologically intimidating, was enhanced with crimson eyes as she activated her armor's systems. She activated her gauntlet's plasma daggers, her stealth systems and checked her shields. Feeling that everything was in order, she moved on to her final task.

On the desk provided sat a metallic version of her personalized energy sword. It wasn't common among her people to fiddle with the design of the blade. And while not too eyebrow raising like some sangheili who made their swords emit red plasma, _"which does nothing," _her blade still turned many heads.

The front two blades were five feet in length, a foot longer than normal. The part that made it truly stand out was that the blade on the bottom lengthened backwards to her elbow. _"I don't see what the big deal is. I can now block more effectively, shouldn't be that surprising to see this kind of design,"_ she thought to herself irritably. Such simple changes and yet many of her people still ask why.

She picked up the blade and moved to the center of the room. Her breath came evenly, just as she was taught by her father. _"Something as simple as breathing correctly can save your life,"_ she recited. She brought her blade back and lowered her body, the basic stance, before moving slowly through the motions of her own personalized style. She would repeat it, over and over, her speed picking up, the blade becoming nothing more than a blur.

After half an hour she stopped. Bringing the blade up to her face, she bowed her head. _"Live honorably, die honorably,"_ she recited, _"These are the words that guide me in life. May I bring glory and honor to my clan through my actions on the battlefield and off."_ Finishing her mantra, she placed the metallic blade on the desk. She picked up her true blade next to it and placed it on her thigh plate before leaving the room.

As she stepped out of her room, so did Shepard. Ryn looked at the human with slight annoyance, "I thought you said you would change your colors."

Shepard crossed her arms and pouted, "Oh come on, look at us. It's like we're twins. Besides if you don't like it why do you still keep the same colors?" she finished accusingly.

Ryn shook her head in bemusement, "Because it has a psychological effect on my enemies and it provides better stealth in shadows. You, on the other hand, like them because it makes you look like a 'badass'." The last word was accentuated by a pair of air-quotes.

"Damn straight I look like a bad ass. How can anyone deny?" the woman asked while striking a pose.

Ryn just stared at the woman she had called friend since childhood for a long moment. Shepard stared back. Several long moments they stared at the emotionless visors of each other's helmets. Ryn turned and began walking to the armory to get her other weapons. "Hey!" she heard behind her.

Shepard caught up to the sangheili and began walking beside her in silence. A moment later, "You know I won right?"

Helmet met palm not even a second later.

**(Bridge of the "Bull's Horn")**

Athena ran through the information her sensors had been giving her the pass few seconds. A nanosecond later she had triple checked it all. Apparently a dozen ships had just come through the Relay on the outer edge of the system. The design of the ships didn't match anything the OSC had. Neither did they match brute ships, _"Which shouldn't be a possibility right now,"_ or forerunner's. She frowned as she began hacking what must have been their communications.

She frowned at how inadequate their cyber defenses were. While she may have been a newer generation of AI, the resistance was terrible. She at least expected some challenge. Nearly every ship had some form of firewall that would take a second at least to get past. Apparently not these ships though as she had metaphorically walked straight in to their communications. She grew concerned though when she couldn't recognize the dialect they were speaking in. This all added up to one conclusion, first contact.

"Captain we have a situation," she stated.

He looked up from a holo-pad and gave her his full attention. "What is it Athena?" he asked.

"A dozen ships of unknown design just entered the system. I took the liberty of hacking in to their communications. No, scratch that. That would imply they tried to fight against me. Anyway, my data bases don't recognize their language either sir," she stated swiftly.

"Are you saying what I think your saying?" he asked.

"Yes sir. This is a first contact scenario."

The bridge crew sat in silence, taking in the implications of this new information. Some of the newer officers looked around nervously. Last time humanity made first contact, it hadn't ended well. Now here was another first contact scenario and they didn't know if these newcomers were friendly. "Begin first contact protocols and inform the rest of the fleet," Samuel ordered.

"Messages already away, sir," Athena said.

"Everyone prepare for combat but do not fire until I command. Athena, alert the rest of the crew," he ordered. The bridge burst into life, everyone preparing to defend the ship if necessary. Samuel leaned back in his chair and sighed, "And now we wait."

**(Armory)**

Everyone looked up when they heard the ship alarms go off. "Alert, alert, all crew members report to your stations. We have confirmed first contact scenario, I repeat we have a confirmed first contact scenario. This is not a drill," Athena's voice blared over the alarms.

Shepard and Ryn were the first to react. Ryn grabbed two plasma rifles and several plasma grenades while Shepard picked two SMG's, a shotgun and her own plasma grenades. If these aliens tried to board the ship they wouldn't make it very far.

As the marines, ODST's and even the occasional sangheili or Unggoy spread out through the ship to cover any and all entry points, Shepard and Ryn headed for the bridge. "Oh joy, another first contact! Doesn't that just sound dandy?" Shepard yelled over the alarms.

"Is this really the time for jokes Shepard?" Ryn yelled back.

"Yup!" Shepard yelled enthusiastically.

The sangheili rolled her eyes but pushed her friend's antics aside for now. Shepard could still deal with most threats,_ "Even if she won't shut her mouth."_

Both females reached the bridge within moments to see it in organized chaos. In the middle of it all stood the captain, hands behind his back and his face calm. The perfect captain some would say, able to give an aura of calm when his crew panicked. He turned to them, "I'm sure I don't need to tell you what's going on."

They both shook their heads and spoke in unison, "No sir."

"Good. I may have you join the rest of the marines shortly, the aliens have yet to reply to our message," he stated. He didn't like the way this was going, the ships were almost within MAC range and they still hadn't responded.

He decided that if they were hostile, he couldn't allow them to get closer to the colony. "Helmsman, meet them halfway. Thompson, tell the rest of the fleet to stay back and pick targets. If they are hostile, open fire," he ordered.

"Aye sir," they both replied.

The Heavy Cruiser began making its way towards the alien fleet. The frigates, destroyers and other cruisers began training their MAC's and plasma torpedo launchers on separate ships.

At four-hundred thousand kilometers the alien ships fired on the Heavy cruiser. Guns similar to their MAC's fired extremely fast projectiles while dozens of missiles flew towards human vessel.

"Sir! Incoming fire!" a crewman yelled.

"Evasive maneuvers! Take out the missiles and get us the hell out of here!" Samuel ordered.

Fifty millimeter point defense guns all across the cruiser's hull turned towards the approaching missiles and let loose thousands of their anti-missile rounds. As the missiles exploded harmlessly in space, the cruiser's shields blocked the alien's main guns.

"Sir, shields are down to sixty-percent!" an officer yelled.

"Fire missile pods A through D!" he ordered.

Hundreds of Mark IV archer missiles launched from the Horn as it retreated back to the fleet. The newer version of the archer missile far outmatched the original used in the Human/Covenant war. Unlike before, the newer missiles now held plasma tipped warheads, increasing their payload by several times. They also now possessed greater navigation systems allowing every one out of ten to completely avoid anti-missile defenses. Finally they all now possessed their own personal shielding systems. While nothing compared to the shields of the ship that launched them, they could still take a direct hit from a pulse laser before failing.

As the enemies own anti-missile systems activated and valiantly tried to fend of the barrage of missiles, the colonies defense fleet was not idle. As soon as the Bull's Horn was out of their way, the defense fleet launched their torpedoes and MAC rounds.

The missiles that made it past the enemy's defenses detonated against their shields, several failing under their destructive force. The unprotected ships broke formation, moving at speeds that most frigates would be hard pressed to reach, trying to avoid the incoming volley of plasma and six-hundred ton ferric tungsten rounds.

Several of the smaller craft weren't lucky enough to avoid the MAC rounds. The first had its engine block ripped off and blew up in a fiery explosion while same the round punched straight through another vessel. Another round gutted a third ship, shattering the small craft into millions of pieces.

**(Turian cruiser)**

Joram stood shocked as he watched the enemy's rail guns rip through several of his frigates. _"No rail gun should be that powerful! Plus they have directed plasma weapons! The energy requirements would vaporize the ship!"_ he thought frantically. "Helm, get us out of their gun's range," he ordered.

"Aye sir!" the navigator yelled back.

He watched as the other rounds sailed past his ships. Then he noticed several seemed to be turning around. "What in the name of the spirits! What are those?" he cried.

"Sir it appears that their plasma rounds have homing capabilities!" one of the officers informed him.

"I can see that! Get us away from thos-" he never finished his sentence as two torpedoes slammed into the cruiser. The first stripped them of their shields and melted away much of the armor, the second slammed straight into the ship and vaporized it instantly.

**(Bridge of "Bull's Horn")**

"Eight confirmed kills sir! The rest are pulling back to the Relay!" an officer yelled.

"Don't let them escape, they might bring reinforcements," he ordered.

His ship turned to chase their retreating foes and accelerated in an attempt to cut them off. Four sangheili and human frigates flew past the cruiser, their superior speed blasting them towards the enemy. "Try to capture one of their ships, I want information on whoever these people are," Samuel told the Shipmaster on the lead frigate.

"At your will Fleetmaster," the sangheili replied.

He watched anxiously the enemy ships closed the distance between them and the relay. One of the sangheili ships activated their slip-space drive and disappeared into the blue portal. He feared that they wouldn't be able to get any data to combat this new foe as three of the surviving ships activated the relay. The final ship was only fifty kilometers away when the telltale portal of slip-space opened up in front of it. The sangheili ship opened fire with its pulse lasers, destroying the alien ship's engines and leaving it dead in space.

"Athena?" Samuel asked.

"I'm using the frigate to piggyback into their systems. Good thing too, if I didn't they would have destroyed all the ships data. I'll get started on translating their language," she said.

"Good, good," he said.

"Well that was easier than expected," Shepard said as she studied the screen showing their frigate send in several boarding teams to subdue the enemy crew.

"Maybe but that might have just been a scouting force," the captain replied.

Every on the bridge fell silent, contemplating the future this battle would herald.

**AN: Tadda! ****Hopefully you liked my first space battle. Those were frigates that got their ass handed to them, remember that. Plus the Turians have how many ships and what not?**


	3. Redo

Legacies

Authors Note

Sorry to everyone who liked this story so far but I just don't feel ok with it. I feel like I dug myself into a hole before I really even got started. So I will be starting a new story. Well not really new, more like revised. It'll be called Legacies redone so don't look at all the other stories that have Legacy in them. Anyways be sure to look at that and review. TTFN


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